Murder Mystery Books if You Love “Knives Out”
The 2020 Academy award-winning whodunnit film, Knives Out, has everything we could ask for in a murder mystery: a zany and brilliant detective, an unexpected assistant, and a slew of possible suspects. Better yet, it’s wracked with family drama, greedy characters, and laugh-out-loud moments. The murder of Harlan Thrombey was one that stumped us all, except for Detective Benoit Blanc. If you’re looking for other murder mysteries of the same caliber as Knives Out and Glass Onion, look no further than these 10 killer novels, each equipped with their own Benoit Blancs, puzzling plots, and twists you won’t see coming — even with a magnifying glass in hand.
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Add to BookshelfThe Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by Agatha Christie
Benoit Blanc is the 2020 version of 1920s Hercule Poirot. Shortly after retiring, Poirot must put his life of leisure aside when he is called to investigate the suicide of the wealthy widow Ferrars, and the subsequent murder of her fiancé, Roger Ackroyd, less than twenty-four hours later. When the widow overdoses in a similar fashion as her poisoned first husband, Roger has his own suspicions about the case. Before he solves the mystery on his own, he’s stabbed in the neck. With the help of Dr. James Sheppard, Poirot takes on this baffling case, looking everywhere except right under his nose.
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$11.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Dial A for Aunties
by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Meddelin Chan is a lot of things: a wedding photographer, a people pleaser, and also so not over her ex-boyfriend — but she is not a killer. At least not until her first date in months goes completely awry. Suddenly, Medi is stuffing his dead body into a freezer trunk with the help of her mom and aunts, unsure of what to do next. The decision is made for her when the trunk gets misplaced and heads directly for the biggest wedding of the year — which just so happens to be held at her ex-boyfriend’s hotel. Now Medi must do her job, keep the body hidden — and maybe even get her man back.
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$19.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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A Deadly Inside Scoop
by Abby Collette
Bronwyn Crewse puts her new MBA to use when she takes over her family’s failing ice cream parlor, Crewse Creamery. When construction delays push the grand opening to the winter, the first snow of the season has customers interested in a different kind of ice. As if her day couldn’t get any worse, Bronwyn crosses paths with a man who had feuded with the Crewse family years before when she discovers him buried in the falling snow — dead. This connection paints her father as a suspect, and Bronwyn must now serve ice cream and justice to ensure that the true killer gets his just desserts.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Arsenic and Adobo
by Mia P. Manansala
After being crushed by her breakup, Lila Macapagal moves back home, distracting herself with salvaging her aunt’s restaurant. Just when she thought she’d seen the last of him, her ex-boyfriend — and feared food critic — comes waltzing into the restaurant. When he drops dead seconds after their confrontation, Lila becomes the number one suspect. Despite her efforts to assert her innocence, the cops don’t let up, leading Lila to take the investigation into her own hands. With the help of her aunts, her best friend, and her small but mighty dachshund, let’s just hope this isn’t a recipe for disaster.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Sunday Philosophy Club
by Alexander McCall Smith
Moral philosopher, Isabel Dalhousie, is perfectly content leading a quiet life — the most excitement coming from her role as the editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. All of this comes crashing down — literally — when a man falls to his death from the upper balcony at Usher Hall. Although it’s ruled an accident, Isabel can’t help but look into it further, certain that there’s something else afoot. Caught up in the investigation and at odds with her own morals, Isabel must decide which is more ethical: to do the wrong thing for the right reasons or to do the right thing for the wrong reasons.
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$16.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Death at the Chateau Bremont
by M. L. Longworth
When Aix-en-Provence’s nobleman Étienne de Bremont falls from the attic window of his family’s chateau, the chief magistrate, Antoine Verlaque, believes that he may have been pushed. The list of suspects is long, and even includes Bremont’s own debt-ridden brother, François. Antoine turns to his ex-girlfriend, and Bremont’s friend, Marine, to solve the case. As they come closer to finding the killer, their investigation is thrown off by another murder. Between the thrill of solving the case and their re-budding romance, Antoine and Marine have a lot on their plate — not counting all the French cuisine that they taste along the way.
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$17.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Secret History
by Donna Tartt
More of a whydunnit than a whodunnit, the killers are revealed on the first page of this novel. When Richard Papen attends a New England university, he has his work cut out for him when he meets Bunny, Henry, Charles, and Camilla, the sole students of Julian, the Greek history professor. When we begin the story and discover that Bunny has been killed by these friends, we’re left to wonder why. What could have led to his murder? Was it his mooching habits, his endless ridicule, or something far more sinister? And an even bigger question — how will the remaining Greek students hide their modus operandi from the police?
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Maid: A GMA Book Club Pick
by Nita Prose
When 25-year-old Molly Gray is left on her own after her grandmother’s death, she’s forced to navigate the world without any social skills. Despite her struggle, Molly’s love of cleaning comes in handy at her job as a hotel cleaner — that is until she enters a room only to discover the body of the very wealthy — and very dead — Charles Black. When she has difficulty answering the police, she becomes their number one suspect. Without her grandmother to guide her, Molly’s unlikely friends step in to help her clean up the mess by finding the real killer.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Not a Happy Family
by Shari Lapena
While it seemed that nobody could beat Knives Out’s most wicked family, the Mertons may give the Thrombeys a run for their money. The wealthy Sheila and Fred Merton are murdered after a tension-filled Easter dinner with their three children. But are Catherine, Dan, and Jenna as devastated as they appear to be? Each of them had their own unhappy relationship with their parents growing up and stands to inherit millions in the event of Mr. And Mrs. Merton’s deaths. Could this dinner have been the last straw for one of the siblings, or was someone else lurking nearby, waiting for an opportunity to frame this less than picture-perfect family?
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$17.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Murder in the Crooked House
by Soji Shimada
When a man is found brutally and mysteriously murdered in the home of millionaire Kozaburo Hamamoto, any one of his several other houseguests could be the killer. The Crooked House is nowhere near the rest of civilization, and as each guest begins to die off, finding the killer before he finds his next victim is critical. The stumped police have no choice but to call in super sleuth, Kiyoshi Mitarai, to take the reins. While Benoit Blanc has other-worldly case-solving abilities, you just might be able to keep up with Kiyoshi — if you follow all the same clues that the killer leaves behind.
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$14.95Buy from Other Retailers:
